In an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) environment, as in many other similar fields), users can be provided with the ability to log in (in some implementations users are required to log in) to access the account. In addition to an account validation, each account can have a plurality of users associated with it, each user having an individual log in. By creating profiles for different users, the account administrator (who is in the context of this discussion one of the users that is responsible for setting up accounts) can create profiles associated with each of the users that can be used to restrict access to content.
Typically logging in to an IPTV environment involves interacting with either the IPTV Set Top Box (STB) or both the IPTV STB and network elements. This is commonly done by entering a pass phrase as will be discussed in more detail below. This is often difficult for some users, and cumbersome for most users. It also does not account for the presence of more than a single user at any time. Thus if two account holders, a parent and a child for example, are both present, one of the two accounts must be used. If the account with the most restrictions is used, the other account holder cannot typically override the content filtering without logging in to the system, which may then provide access to some content that would preferably not be shown. The only prior art remedy is to create a third account that would then be used for the two account holders when together. This is cumbersome and creates administrative problems that are preferably avoided.
In an unrelated art field, image processing has allowed for individuals in photographs to be identified based on facial characteristics. As illustrated in FIG. 1, a photograph with three people in it is captured by capture device 52, and is then passed to a recognition engine 54. Recognition engine 54 can isolate the faces in the photograph with sufficiently high accuracy, and can then compare the facial features of each identified face to the contents of profile database 56. Based on the contents of the profile database 56, recognition engine 54 can modify photograph 50 to produce photograph 50a which includes metadata identifying each of user1 58a, user2 58b and user3 58c. These features can be performed by some cameras, some camera phones, and by many computers.
In the field of computer security, it is known that a biometric reading, including a facial recognition scan, can be used as a login credential into some computing systems. FIG. 2 illustrates such an embodiment. A photograph of a user 60 is captured by capture device 52 and provided to recognition engine 54. Recognition Engine 54 access content in user profile and credential database 62, to identify the user in photograph 60 and then provides the login credential 64 associated with that user to login engine 66. At this point the user is able to login to the computer system.
As discussed above, in a conventional IPTV environment, a user interacts with an STB 70 connected to a display 68. The STB 70 provides a login prompt 72 on display 68. The user makes use of remote control 74 to provide a pass phrase, or typically a Personal Identification Number (PIN). The PIN, as discussed above, is an account specific login credential that is then used to validate the user and provide access to an account. In some embodiments, the user is requested to select a login from a menu and is then prompted for the PIN.
At present logging in to an IPTV STB is done with a user specific credential, and requires that a controller with a form factor limited input mechanism is employed. This is far from ideal. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a system and method that obviate or mitigate the above described problems